So it is Barcelona again! Of course we should show respect to the current CL holders and no doubt they will be the favourites once again, but we should not fear them.

The draw sexy Alexis will have been hoping for!

From having Cech in goal to avoid inexperienced mistakes, to Alexis giving his all to beat his former paymasters; and from Theo terrorising the high back-line, to Ozil, Santi and Ramsey finding the gaps with and without the ball; and from our full backs springing a surprise, to Giroud creating space for our midfielders… we have weapons to hurt the Catalans. Our recent 2-0 home win against Bayernlona will help a lot in this respect, and if we can manage a similar score-line, we have something the fight for at the Camp Nou. The one thing to hope for is UEFA selecting their best referees for both legs, and then we have a fair and mouth-watering battle to look forward to.

I reckon with this team we could hurt them, especially if all are fit and we can field a strong bench as well:

Hi Admir, I like the look of your team selection, though I reckon it could be Theo up top and Campbell on the right. Wanyama would be great and an improvement on our back up DMs but I don’t think Wenger is in the market for a DM as I suspect he is thinking longer term e.g. the development of Chambers as another DM. We have a chance of winning of course, this is football and we must believe we can, though I suspect we will go out at this stage (not a bad thing) allowing us to focus fully on the premier league title. Title is very important now and I don’t think with our current injury luck/curse we can challenge for both. Much more likely for me seeing us go far in the champions league next year or year after with the solving of the injury crises and a few additions – through the market and/or internally as our players continue to mature.

FMJ- hi. 🙂 I agree with you that our squad might be over-stretched to make the big double. The thing is, our most difficult period in the league will be before the game against Barcelona – January with Liverpool and Stoke away and Chavs at home is arguably the most important month of all. If we, say, make a serious gap (7-9 points) ahead of City as the most serious rivals before the first leg against Barca, we might go for both.

@TA – yep. I have a feeling that combo could afford Jack’s lack of positional awareness and desire to drive forward. After all, his best game ever could be the one against Xaviesta at the Emirates four years ago.

Imagine that an angel came to our sleep in August 2015 and said:

“Thou shalt watch Leicester v Chelsea. One shalt be your rival and the other would be in relegation zone. Which score thou shalt want?”

In a challege like barca, the biggest miss will be le coquelin .. without him we are just trying to get by, not replaceable , in house, or in transfer market. He’s a game changer.
Also hurts against man city im thinking.. if i remember well, he shut down Silva before.

If not we really have to get someone like Wanyama or someone better in the winter window.

Not a good day.. Chavs did not manage to draw Leicester, and we are 2nd.. plus we have Barca in 2 months time.. not what the doctor prescibed, and all i can say is get the top spot back against Manc Shi**y.

I was listening to a PodCast this evening, featuring Phillipe Auclair, the French football journalist, Anglophile and Arsenal fan…
He said that he 99-100% certain that Arsenal we’re going to bring in one and possible two players this January and that the club were working extremely hard to make this happen especially in the wake of the injuries to Santi n Coq…

He said that they wouldn’t be the popular names being bandied about in the Press at this time…

I see AW bringing in new players in Jan in the CM/DM role. Can’t see AW not reinforcing the squad with Barca coming up and with Coq out till March. Flamini is decent but I doubt he’ll survive Barca’s onslaught.